Search Results (504)

This article presents a qualitative analysis of GAVIN, a Blockchain-based system for educational information management that is fully compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This system was designed to address the challenges of academic credential verification and recovery in a context where academic certificate issuance and verification is highly fragmented, with institutions operating isolated systems that hinder efficient verification and facilitate the proliferation of fraudulent documents. The GAVIN model introduces a multi-blockchain architecture aimed at recognition of formal, non-formal, and informal learning, guaranteeing compliance with GDPR. After completing the design and development of a functional prototype, this study discusses its qualitative evaluation by means of a validation workshop with diverse stakeholders from the education sector, using pre- and post-workshop questionnaires grounded in the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Results indicate a strong perceived usefulness and significant potential to improve current credentialing processes. However, concerns were raised regarding implementation feasibility, associated costs, the need for official standardization, and the importance of establishing robust governance and sustainable business models. This study offers valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities of blockchain adoption in education, providing guidance for future development and policy-making. Full article

With the rapid adoption of generative AI technologies across various sectors, it has become increasingly important to understand how these systems handle personal data. The study examines users’ awareness of the types of data collected, the risks involved, and their implications for privacy and security. A comprehensive literature review was conducted to contextualize the ethical, technical, and regulatory challenges associated with generative AI, followed by a pilot survey targeting ChatGPT users from a variety of demographics. The results of the study revealed a significant gap in users’ understanding of data practices, with many participants expressing concerns about unauthorized access to data, prolonged data retention, and a lack of transparency. Despite recognizing the benefits of ChatGPT in various applications, users expressed strong demands for greater control over their data, clearer consent mechanisms, and more transparent communication from developers. The study concludes by emphasizing the need for multi-dimensional solutions that combine technological innovation, regulatory reform, and user-centered design. Recommendations include implementing explainable AI, enhancing educational efforts, adopting privacy-by-design principles, and establishing robust governance frameworks. By addressing these challenges, developers, policymakers, and stakeholders can enhance trust, promote ethical AI deployment, and ensure that generative AI systems serve the public good while respecting individual rights and privacy. Full article

Maintaining air quality is an important environmental challenge, affecting both urban and regional areas where industrial, agricultural, and energy activities intersect. The Upper Hunter Valley, NSW, experiences emissions from coal mining, power generation, agriculture, and wood fires, compounded by local meteorology, geology, and climate change. This study applies a political economy framework to examine historical governance structures including colonial legacies, institutional arrangements, and power relations and how they shape stakeholder roles and influence decision-making related to air quality. Technical applied research including improving dust monitoring, occupational health studies, and investigations into alternative fuels provided an empirical basis for identifying key stakeholders, including mining and energy companies, regulatory agencies, local councils, community groups, and environmental organisations. The analysis demonstrates how these actors influence governance processes, social licence to operate, and public perceptions of environmental risk. Findings indicate that effective air quality management requires multi-level, collaborative approaches that integrate technical expertise, regulatory oversight, and community engagement. The study highlights the importance of systemic strategies that align economic, environmental, and social objectives, providing insight into the governance of contested environmental resources in historically and politically complex regional contexts. This article is a rewritten and expanded version of the study “Analysis of air quality stakeholders in the Upper Hunter”, presented at the Clean Air conference, in Hobart, Australia, August 2024. Full article

This study extends research on sustainability transformation by investigating how power dynamics operate across organizational boundaries to enable or constrain substantive change. Using a mixed-methods approach combining survey data (n = 127) from sustainability professionals across multiple sectors and in-depth interviews (n = 18) with transformation leaders, this research identifies how organizations address power asymmetries in supply chains and multi-stakeholder partnerships. Exploratory statistical analysis indicates that inter-organizational power mobilization is associated with the effectiveness of integration mechanisms (β = 0.36, p < 0.01), with digital transparency tools showing the strongest association with integration across boundaries (β = 0.41, p < 0.01). Qualitative findings reveal three critical pathways for addressing power dynamics: technological transparency mechanisms, collaborative governance structures, and capability building networks. The research contributes to sustainability science by advancing understanding of how organizations can move beyond internal transformation to address systemic sustainability challenges through approaches that consider power relationships across organizational boundaries. The findings offer preliminary guidance for practitioners seeking to enhance sustainability impact through strategic management of inter-organizational power dynamics. Full article

The fast advancement of artificial intelligence presents ethical challenges that exceed the scope of traditional moral theories. This paper proposes a value-centered framework for AI ethics grounded in axiology, which distinguishes intrinsic values like dignity and fairness from instrumental ones such as accuracy and efficiency. This distinction supports ethical pluralism and contextual sensitivity. Using Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), the framework translates values into structured evaluations, enabling transparent trade-offs. A healthcare case study illustrates how ethical outcomes vary across physician, patient, and public health perspectives. The results highlight the limitations of single-theory approaches and emphasize the need for adaptable models that reflect diverse stakeholder values. By linking philosophical inquiry with governance initiatives like Responsible Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Digital Humanism, the framework offers actionable design criteria for inclusive and context-aware AI development. Full article

This study investigates the gendered implications of Pakistan’s Special Economic Zones (SEZs) under CPEC 2.0, focusing on risks and opportunities for women in the country’s green industrial transition. Using a mixed-methods approach that combines secondary research with multi-stakeholder consultations, including engagement with SEZ authorities, Chinese investors, and women’s professional networks, the paper examines how legal ambiguity, defeminization, and occupational segregation restrict women’s participation and mobility in SEZs. Drawing on global comparative evidence and Pakistan’s specific legal and institutional gaps, the paper argues that SEZs can support gender-equitable industrialization if reforms are integrated into their design and governance. It recommends introducing mandatory gender equity plans in zone licensing, providing targeted skills training for women in high-tech sectors, operationalizing Pakistan’s National Gender Policy Framework within SEZ development, and embedding the Zone Social Responsibility (ZSR) framework across all SEZs to ensure long-term inclusion and empowerment. Full article

The industrialization of using crop straw as energy is currently hindered by systemic bottlenecks, including high collection and storage costs, a poorly coordinated industrial chain, and underdeveloped market mechanism. This study takes Guangdong province as a case study to construct a tripartite evolutionary game model on the transition of straw to energy among the government, enterprises, and farmers. Different from previous studies that focused on the strategy of penalizing the open burning of straw by farmers, this work investigated the cooperation of farmers for straw removal from field, the operational strategies of enterprises for straw utilization as energy, and the selection of government-guided incentive policies. It analyzes the behavioral evolution of these stakeholders under various incentive policies and cooperative scenarios. Numerical simulations were performed to identify the system’s evolutionary stable strategies and assess the potential of expanding straw for energy utilization. It indicated that mild government intervention could lead to a stable equilibrium through facilitating the removal of straw from fields and the utilization of straw as energy by enterprises. Farmers were sensitive to the fluctuation of acquisition price, and their willingness to cooperate would be negatively impacted by a large-scale price reduction. Enterprise expansion was exposed to significant risk under intensive policy intervention. The feasible pathway to increase the proportion of straw utilization as energy in Guangdong began at a small scale. Under mild incentive policies, a scenario targeting a 20% increase was more likely to achieve a market equilibrium for large-scale production than that targeting a 55% increase. The government should draw up positive incentive policies to promote the utilization of straw as energy. By guiding farmers in straw removal from the field and improving the energy enterprises’ competitiveness, the government should curb irrational industry expansion and corporate speculation, and shift from investment support to incentive policies. Meanwhile, the ecological construction of industry and supply chains should be enhanced, and the scale should be used to reduce the high supply-side costs of the straw. It would overcome the central barrier to the commercialization of straw utilization as energy. This work sets an example for conducting dynamic analysis of multi-stakeholder interactions for straw utilization. Full article

Flooding is one of the most frequent and destructive natural disasters worldwide, with intensifying socioeconomic and environmental consequences linked to rapid urbanisation and climate change. This review examines flood risk delineation and assessment in Nigeria within a broader Global South perspective, synthesising evidence from peer-reviewed studies that employ remote sensing, GIS-based techniques, and multi-criteria decision analysis. The analysis reveals persistent challenges that undermine effective flood risk management, including incompatible datasets, limited stakeholder participation, and inadequate integration with formal planning systems. To address these gaps, the study introduces the GIS-Integrated Flood Risk Management (GIFRM) Framework, a conceptual model that integrates high-resolution risk mapping, adaptive infrastructure design, sustainable urban planning, and participatory governance. GIFRM advances resilience discourse beyond hazard mapping, offering a practical bridge between science, policy, and implementation by aligning technical geospatial analysis with actionable planning solutions. Comparative case insights from flood-prone countries such as Bangladesh, India, and Kenya highlight transferable strategies, including community-led data integration, modular infrastructure approaches, and localised zoning reforms. The review concludes by critically examining the operational disconnect between advanced geospatial risk assessment and its application in resource-limited, rapidly urbanising settings. It reframes flood risk assessment as an interdisciplinary planning tool with global relevance, delivering lessons for disaster preparedness, urban sustainability, and climate resilience. In the face of escalating hydrometeorological extremes, this research offers applied strategies for embedding GIS technologies into adaptive policy frameworks, positioning flood risk management as a core driver of sustainable development. Full article

As tourism increasingly drives the revitalization of traditional villages, rural spaces are undergoing a transformation from functional living areas to spaces for cultural display and leisure. This shift has amplified the spatial usage discrepancies between multiple stakeholders, such as tourists and villagers, highlighting conflicts in spatial resource allocation and behavior path organization. Using Wulin Village, a typical example of a Minnan overseas Chinese village, as a case study, this paper introduces social network analysis to construct a “spatial–behavioral” dual network model. The model integrates both architectural and public spaces, alongside behavior path data from villagers and tourists, to analyze the spatial structure at three scales: village-level network completeness, district-level structural balance, and point-level node vulnerability. The study integrates two dimensions—architectural space and public space—along with behavioral path data from both villagers and tourists. It reveals the characteristics of spatial structure under the intervention of multiple behavioral agents from three scales: village-level network completeness, district-level structural balance, and point-level node vulnerability. The core research focus of the spatial network includes the network structure of architectural and public spaces, while the behavioral network concerns the activity paths and behavior patterns of tourists and villagers. The study finds that, at the village scale, Wulin Village’s spatial network demonstrates good connectivity and structural integrity, but the behavior paths of both tourists and villagers are highly concentrated in core areas, leading to underutilization of peripheral spaces. This creates an asymmetry characterized by “structural integrity—concentrated behavioral usage.” At the district scale, the spatial node distribution appears balanced, but tourist behavior paths are concentrated around cultural nodes, such as the ancestral hall, visitor center, and theater, while other areas remain inactive. At the point scale, both tourist and villager activities are highly dependent on a few high-degree, high-cluster nodes, improving local efficiency but exacerbating systemic vulnerability. Comparison with domestic and international studies on cultural settlements shows that tourism often leads to over-concentration of spatial paths and node overload, revealing significant discrepancies between spatial integration and behavioral usage. In response, this study proposes multi-scale spatial optimization strategies: enhancing accessibility and path redundancy in non-core areas at the village scale; guiding behavior distribution towards multifunctional nodes at the district scale; and strengthening the capacity and resilience of core nodes at the point scale. The results not only extend the application of behavioral network methods in spatial structure research but also provide theoretical insights and practical strategies for spatial governance and cultural continuity in tourism-driven cultural villages. Full article

Efficient water resource management in arid and semi-arid regions is a critical challenge due to persistent scarcity, climate change, and unsustainable agricultural practices. This review synthesizes recent advances in applying remote sensing (RS), geographic information systems (GIS), and machine learning (ML) to monitor, analyze, and optimize water use in vulnerable agricultural landscapes. RS is evaluated for its capacity to quantify soil moisture, evapotranspiration, vegetation dynamics, and surface water extent. GIS applications are reviewed for hydrological modeling, watershed analysis, irrigation zoning, and multi-criteria decision-making. ML algorithms, including supervised, unsupervised, and deep learning approaches, are assessed for forecasting, classification, and hybrid integration with RS and GIS. Case studies from Central Asia, North Africa, the Middle East, and the United States illustrate successful implementations across various applications. The review also applies the DPSIR (Driving Force–Pressure–State–Impact–Response) framework to connect geospatial analytics with water policy, stakeholder engagement, and resilience planning. Key gaps include data scarcity, limited model interpretability, and equity challenges in tool access. Future directions emphasize explainable AI, cloud-based platforms, real-time modeling, and participatory approaches. By integrating RS, GIS, and ML, this review demonstrates pathways for more transparent, precise, and inclusive water governance in arid agricultural regions. Full article

The intelligent transformation of the wastewater treatment industry, as a core component of the modern environmental governance system, is of decisive significance for achieving sustainable development goals. This study focuses on the issue of multi-stakeholder collaborative governance in the intelligent transformation of the wastewater treatment industry, with differential game theory as the core framework. A tripartite game model involving the government, wastewater treatment enterprises, and digital twin platforms is developed to depict the dynamic interrelations and mutual influences of strategy choices, thereby capturing the coordination mechanisms among government regulation, enterprise technology adoption, and platform support in the transformation process. Based on the dynamic optimization properties of differential games, the Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman (HJB) equation is employed to derive the long-term equilibrium strategies of the three parties, presenting the evolutionary paths under Nash non-cooperative games, Stackelberg games, and tripartite cooperative games. Furthermore, the Sobol global sensitivity analysis is applied to identify key parameters influencing system performance, while the response surface method (RSM) with central composite design (CCD) is used to quantify parameter interaction effects. The findings are as follows: (1) compared with Nash non-cooperative and Stackelberg games, the tripartite cooperative strategy based on the differential game model achieves global optimization of system performance, demonstrating the efficiency-enhancing effect of dynamic collaboration; (2) the most sensitive parameters are β, α, μ₃, and η₃, with β having the highest sensitivity index (ST_i = 0.459), indicating its dominant role in system performance; (3) significant synergistic enhancement effects are observed among α–β, α–μ₃, and β–μ₃, corresponding, respectively, to the “technology stability–benefit conversion” gain effect, the “technology decay–platform compensation” dynamic balance mechanism, and the “benefit conversion–platform empowerment” performance threshold rule. Full article

Under China’s diversified food supply strategy and the accelerated modernization of its fisheries sector, marine ranches have become vital food sources and production bases. Their digital–intelligent transformation now represents a key pathway to improve resource efficiency, ensure food security, and promote sustainable marine economic development. Adopting a qualitative research design, this study examines China’s marine ranches using the TOE framework and a systemic grounded theory approach to identify key elements and evolutionary logic of their digital–intelligent transformation from multi-source qualitative data. It constructs a three-stage evolutionary model comprising “Technology and Facility Capacity Building Phase–Digital Resource Integration and Application Deepening Phase–Multi-stakeholder Collaboration and Systemic Governance Phase,” revealing the dynamic coupling mechanism among technological progress, organizational change, and environmental adaptation. Results indicate that the digital–intelligent transformation of marine ranches represents a systemic transition from technology-driven to collaborative governance, characterized by platform-based collaboration, factor restructuring, and institutional linkage. Based on these findings, this study proposes tiered policy and practice recommendations emphasizing institutional guidance by governments, innovation investments by enterprises, and ecological support from third-party platforms. The research not only expands the application scope of the TOE framework but also provides an applicable theoretical framework and policy reference for digital governance and sustainable development in marine fisheries. Full article

Environmental management systems (EMSs), such as ISO 14001, are commonplace across the architecture, engineering, construction, operations, and management (AECOM) sectors of advanced economies. However, their uptake remains limited across emerging markets and developing economies. This study explores stakeholders’ perceptions of the benefits and barriers to implementing EMSs within the AECOM sectors of Malaysia. Guided by a positivist stance, the study takes a quantitative approach using an online questionnaire to gather the opinions of AECOM professionals. The findings reveal that participants believe the most significant benefits of implementing EMSs in Malaysia are to improve corporate image and contribute to the environmental standards of the sector, whereas the most significant barriers to implementing EMSs are lack of client support and the difficulty in coordinating environmental performance among multi-tier subcontractors. Based on the evidence collected, the study recommends encouragement by the government of Malaysia to drive forward environmental management and further research into the reasons for the lack of reported support for ISO 14001 within the supply chain. Full article

This study investigates how urban tourism contributes to sustainable development, with a focus on SDGs 8.9 and 17 in Nanyang City. Drawing on a reflective measurement model and employing Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), this study examines the impact of urban tourism on cultural promotion, employment creation, and multi-stakeholder collaboration. A total of 300 surveys were collected from locals and visitors across Nanyang City to analyze these relationships. The results suggest that urban tourism promotes economic development but is also a means to preserve cultural heritage, and in turn directly supports SDG 8.9 for sustainable tourism, leading to job creation and local culture preservation. The analysis also shows that collaboration among governments, private organizations, and local communities is needed to achieve effective urban tourism governance, as stated in SDG 17. This study contributes a novel theoretical development to the literature, relating SDG-based governance with local tourism dynamics whilst providing an emic perspective of how mid-sized Chinese cities like Nanyang City, through collaborative and inclusive governance of tourism, put SDGs 8.9 and 17 into practice. The results contribute to current tourism–SDG frameworks by showing how the presence of local cultural endowments and decentralized governance structures homogenizes a specific pathway toward sustainable urban tourism. Additionally, the results provided practical guidance for tourism practitioners and policymakers on how to increase urban tourism systems’ diversity, inclusiveness, and resilience. This study’s limitations, being restricted to a single city with a small sample and a lack of longitudinal follow-up, may make findings difficult to generalize. Full article

The Safety–Sustainability Governance (SSG) Framework is presented to address critical governance and safety challenges in the domestic ferry sector, particularly in developing countries. The sector faces persistent challenges, indicating the inadequacies in aligning national policies with international yardsticks despite the present global maritime safety standards. To foster an equilibrium between regulatory compliance and rights-based inclusivity, the SSG approach integrates Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles, socio-technical systems (STS), and maritime governance theory. Based on literature review and a wider range survey conducted across 48 countries, the study assesses the SSG approach through four key principles. These principles are proactive planning, vibrant governance policies, effective management and monitoring, and climate-resilient safety practices. The study employed a strong evaluation of governance metrics by using the Principles, Criteria, and Indicators (PCI) methodology which was supported by the Simple Multi-Attribute Rating Technique (SMART). In order to validate the reliability and consistency of findings, statistical tools, such as Pearson Correlation and Cronbach’s Alpha, were used. This not only unveiled high compliance in protective planning and operational monitoring but also highlighted shortcomings in policy enforcement, stakeholders’ engagement, and climate adaptation strategies. The SSG framework acts as an adaptable tool that enables stakeholders to execute targeted improvements and determine governance adequacy. The application of this framework emphasis the significance of stakeholder collaboration, advanced technologies, and regulatory alignment in promoting sustainability and safety in ferry operations. This research presents an innovative contribution by offering a practical model that links global safety standards with local operational realities by paving the technique for improved safety, governance, and sustainability in the domestic ferry industry. Full article